Your Top Tips
Ourpick ofth ebe stadvicefromour
readers.Pleasese ndqu estionsandanswers
70 18 Sept - 1 Oct 2019
SOFTWARE
Tr y new operatingsystems
in your browser
If you want to try a newOS but can’t
face the rigmarole of installing virtual PC
software, then I heartilyrecommend
OnWorks (www.onworks.net), which lets
you emulate different operating systems
from your br owser. Goto OS
Distributions and choose fromFedora,
Ubuntu,Windows 10 (well, a Linux clone
of Windows 10), PearOS (which is as
closeto using a Mac asyou’ll get without
owning one) and more. You’ll then see
the workstation right inyour br owser.
Walt Kennick, via email
GENERAL PC
Use or disable activity history
Windows records your activities, such as
visitedwebsites and opened documents,
in a timeline. Click theTask View button
in the taskbar(second icon onmy PC)
to displayyour activities as tiles on the
screen with a time slider on the right. If
you use twocomputers –work andat
home or desktop and laptop,for example
- it shows activities from both.The other
computer’s name is shown in thetop-
right corner of the tile.
If you don’t use thisfeature or find it
creepy being monitored, openWindows
Settings and choose Privacy, then
‘Activity history’. Turn off anyswitches
that store your activities and send them
to Microsoft.
Peter Bently, via email
GENERAL PC
Get adesktop hardware
monitor
The Windows 1903 update includesa
new Game Bar which, though primarily
aimedat gamers, has other uses,too.
For example,you can pin a CPU, GPU
and RAM monitorto the desktop. I prefer
this to the Task Manager, which does the
same thing but in a floating window.
PressWindows+G to open theGame
Bar. Click and drag the panelfor CPU/
GPU/RAMto whereyou want it on the
desktop, then click the pin iconto pin it.
Click elsewhere on the desktop to
dismiss theGame Bar and the monitor
remains.To move it, pressWindows+G
again and unpin it.
Simon Ryan, via email
BROWSERS
SpeedupFirefox loading
times
I am fed up with the time TLS Handshake
takes in Firefox when loading pages in
Windows 7. I’ve searchedfor solutions
online andfound only one thatworks
reasonablywell. Typeabout:config
in the Firefox address bar, then typels
in the search box and press Enter. Right-
click ‘security.tls.version.min’ and change
the integervalue to 2. It will take effect
straight away, and may also helpto clear
your cache.
Coops, via email
BROWSERS
Play the Chrome dinosaur
gameat anytime
Google’s dinosaur game typically only
plays whenyou lose access to the
internet butyou don’t have to keep
TOP TIP
Not afan of the new-look Google
Images? Me neither – I much
preferred the old design.After
some quick and judicious Googling,
I’ve found the answer – a Chrome
extension called Google Images
Rest ored (bit.ly/restored484). This
brings back, as close as possible,
the old look before theoverhaul,
whileremovingrelated searches
and adding aView Image button.
That’s really useful because,for some
unknownreason, Google got rid of this
entirely. It’s also availablefor Firefox
Bring back the old Google Images
GOOGLE
(bit.ly/restoredfox484), if that’s your
browser of choice.
Fred Bliss, via email
Do you wantto store and share your PC
activities or not? Choose in Settings
Modify this setting to make Firefox load
pages more quickly
Get back Google Images’ View Image button
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